Telekom sits at one end of the custom/production bike
range  all the team's bikes are custom made for the individual
rider, and Fausto Pinarello builds special bikes for special circumstances.

Probably the most famous special occasion for Telekom
is Milano-San Remo. Erik Zabel gets a new bike immediately before
the race, as revealed by Telekom mechanic Ken Ilegems in our
interview last month. "The bike is brandnew and features
everything that we have to make the bike perfect. This is a tradition
of Pinarello (up until now it has paid-off...)," says Luuc.

But that's not all. For the World Time Trial championships,
Pinarello built a special bike for Jan Ullrich: "Because of
the course, we had a bike with the geometry of a TT bike, and the
tubing of the superlite Prince."

The bikes are fully Campagnolo-equipped with a smattering
of the carbon fiber weight-saving measures introduced by Campagnolo
over the last few years to its Record group, including the carbon
Record seatpost, and carbon brake/shift levers.

3T provides the bars and stems for the team, keeping
with the Italian theme. In fact, about the only parts of Team Telekom's
bikes not sources from the Mediterranean boot are the German-made
Continental tubular tyres.

When we took these shots of a Telekom bike at the Tour Down Under,
one piece of evidence of the time of year was distinctly on show:
SRM power-measuring cranks. You're unlikely to see these on Telekom's
bikes in the middle of the season, but at this time of year they're
a valuable training tool.